System and Method for Creation of Optimal Range Boundaries in a Range Management System

1. A method comprising: assigning manufacturing process routings to flows wherein each flow contains a group of manufacturing process routes; applying range break rules to the flows based on input data regarding operations and toolsets; one of: dividing a list of the operations in a manufacturing process route into optimal ranges based on raw process time distribution and the range break rules; and using range boundaries to divide the flows into equitable portions; and outputting results of the applying step to provide range break boundaries, wherein the assigning, applying and outputting are implemented with a computer infrastructure.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising outputting data in a standard spreadsheet format.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the output data comprises range break data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the steps of claim 1 are repeated periodically.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the range break rules are based on characteristics of operations.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the range break rules are based on characteristics of toolsets.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is implemented in a range management process used to fabricate integrated circuits and the range break rules take into account actual work-in-process flow patterns.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each range break rule describes one of: a manner in which work-in-process is controlled; and a manner in which toolsets consistently act.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method decides a range break boundary solely on a basis of one of: whether a raw process time target has been met for a range; and whether a range break rule must be followed.

10. A method comprising: assigning process routings to flows; applying range break rules to the flows based on input data regarding operations and toolsets; dividing the flows into equitable portions; and outputting results of the applying step to provide range break boundaries, wherein the input data comprises: a list of operations; process names for each operation; X factors assigned to flows; raw processing times for each operation; and locations for time-sensitive operations, wherein the assigning, applying and outputting are implemented with a computer infrastructure.

11. A method comprising: assigning process routings to flows; applying range break rules to the flows based on input data regarding operations and toolsets; dividing the flows into equitable portions; and outputting results of the applying step to provide range break boundaries, wherein the range break rules comprise at least one of: time-sensitive route regions are kept together within a same range; rework-sensitive regions are kept in the same range; short raw process time (RPT) measurement operations are kept in the same range as the preceding process operation; keep post-disposition steps in the same range with the assigning, applying and outputting; and process limited yield steps are kept together within the same range, wherein the assigning, applying and outputting are implemented with a computer infrastructure.

12. A system comprising at least one computing device implementing instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium configured to: receive input data; assign manufacturing process routings to flows wherein each flow contains manufacturing process routes; determine range breaks by applying range break rules to the input data and the manufacturing process routings; and output results of the determining steps wherein the system divides a list of operations in each manufacturing process route into optimal ranges based on raw process time distribution and the range break rules.

13. The system of claim 12 , further comprising providing capabilities of manually overriding the results of the determining step.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the results are output in the computer readable storage medium.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the range break rules comprise grouping post-disposition steps in a same range with previous process steps.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the range break rules comprise grouping time-sensitive steps within a same range.

17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the range break rules comprise grouping steps that are treated as one logical operation within a same range.

18. The system of claim 14 , wherein the range break rules comprise grouping rework-sensitive steps within a same range.

19. The system of claim 14 , wherein the range break rules comprise grouping short raw process time post measurement operations.

20. The system of claim 14 , wherein the range break rules are based on characteristics of operations.

21. The system of claim 14 , wherein the range break rules are based on characteristics of toolsets.

22. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium including a computer readable program stored on the computer readable storage medium and usable with a computer, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on the computer, causes the computer to: receive input data; determine range breaks by applying range break rules to the input data; dividing a list of operations in a manufacturing process route into optimal ranges based on raw process time distribution and range break rules; and output results of the determining step, wherein the range break rules are one of manufacturing process based and manufacturing toolset based.